Power cuts may go on until April

SOUTH Africa faces more loadshedding until the summer rains in the eastern part of the country stop around April‚ Eskom chief executive Brian Dames said yesterday.

He was speaking at a meeting with the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Johannesburg.

Coal-dependent Eskom uses poor- quality coal‚ with much of South Africa's higher-grade coal exported to China and India.

Dames said a meeting with the South African Chamber of Mines on Monday night had secured cooperation on restocking Eskom's supplies of coarse coal that could be used to improve the quality and efficiency of the fine coal dust Eskom used in its coal- fired power stations.

Load-shedding was imposed when relentless rain in the northeastern parts of South Africa soaked coal stockpiles‚ creating "a slurry" that could not be used in the boilers‚ Dames said. "The chamber of mines will work with us‚ but I won't quote the price they want‚" he said.

Sacci chief executive Neren Rau said key for business was certainty‚ but he realised that was a tall ask.

"We want as much clarity as possible‚" he said. "We have gone day to day not knowing what the level of risk [of not having electricity] is."

Dames said he had asked mining company BHP Billiton‚ which supplies the utility's Kendal power station‚ for a report on the quality of coal that was supplied to the station on Thursday.

A batch of wet coal supplied resulted in three of the power station's units being shut down‚ reducing energy supply by about 3000MW and precipitating the load shedding. - Sue Blaine